“Circumstances came to your life that you could not prevent, Thaddeus,” suggested Marion sympathetically.

“You mean… my wife?”

“Yes, her death, but also your work, your appointment here in Germany. As I look at it, it seems the two of you have not merely made the best of it you can but have made a very good thing of it indeed. You are close to each other, after all, and that is not a thing all fathers can say concerning their sons.”

“Yes, and I am thankful for that. You are right.”

“Still, you feel sorry for Matthew, is that it?”

“Perhaps,” agreed Thaddeus. He thought a moment. “I suppose I cannot help seeing a great deal of myself in him,” he added after a moment. “As I said, he sets high standards for himself—too high. He gets that from me, I think. But again, being in the circles we are, where there’s such an air of sophistication and everything being just so, it almost can’t be helped that he would see all this and want to fit in. Rather than just being a boy, he has striven to grow up before his time, trying to be the perfect diplomat’s son, if you know what I mean.”

“He doesn’t seem any the worse for it,” commented Marion. “He is very grown-up and personable, able to handle himself and converse very easily with others.”

“Being close as we are, and being my friend as well as my son, I have taken him everywhere with me. He’s been around adults most of his life and has been comfortable with it. He’s been treated as older than he was and learned early to be gracious, to act as an adult would. You may have noticed that he tends to feel awkward and sheepish and embarrassed easily when the smooth diplomatic covering gets stripped away or when he feels likes he’s lost control of himself or done something foolish.”

Thaddeus laughed. “He didn’t stop talking for months about what an idiot he felt like after falling in the pond at that garden party two years ago! He doesn’t realize that everybody sticks their foot in their mouth and commits a faux pas now and then. He doesn’t know how to allow for that in himself.”

“He’ll learn.”

“That’s probably my major concern, that he doesn’t know when and where it’s acceptable to be… well, to be childish and frivolous.”

“He seems able to enjoy himself here,” said Marion.

“That’s your daughter’s influence,” rejoined Thaddeus. “I can see that Sabina brings out the child, the playfulness, even an impulsiveness in him. He thinks a great deal of her, but mostly he finds her fun to be with. He has told me so. She brings a part of his nature to the surface that he has never had the chance to discover before now.”